Birdbooker Report 210

Compiled by an ardent bibliophile, this weekly report includes books about the Crimean War, the evolution of beauty, birds of Melanesia, whales and more that have been newly published in North America and the UK

Ian Paulsen

Sunday 19 February 2012 07.00 EST
First published on Sunday 19 February 2012 07.00 EST

Books to the ceiling, Books to the sky,My pile of books is a mile high.How I love them! How I need them!I'll have a long beard by the time I read them.

~ Arnold Lobel [1933-1987] author of many popular children's books.

Compiled by Ian "Birdbooker" Paulsen, the Birdbooker Report is a long-running weekly report listing the wide variety of nature, natural history, ecology, animal behaviour, science and history books that have been newly released or republished in North America and in the UK. The books listed here were received by Ian during the previous week, courtesy of these various publishing houses.

Dutson, Guy. Birds of Melanesia: Bismarcks, Solomons, Vanuatu, and New Caledonia. 2012. Princeton University Press. Paperback: 447 pages. Price: $49.95 U.S. [Guardian Bookshop; Amazon UK; Amazon US]. SUMMARY: Melanesia harbours an amazing range of endemic bird species and subspecies, many of which are poorly known. Birds of Melanesia is the first comprehensive field guide to all 501 species found in the Bismarck Archipelago, Bougainville, the Solomons, Vanuatu, and New Caledonia. This beautifully illustrated guide features 86 color plates that depict almost every species -- including many endemic subspecies -- and many of the plates are arranged by island group for easy reference. Detailed species accounts describe key identification features and distribution, as well as key features for all subspecies. Distribution bars are also given for all species except extreme vagrants. This title includes:

Covers all 501 species recorded in Melanesia, 204 of which are endemic

Features 86 color plates that illustrate almost every species

Provides detailed species accounts

Includes distribution bars for all species except extreme vagrants

IAN'S RECOMMENDATION: A must have for those birding the region!

New and Recent Titles:

Van Nieuwenhuyse, Dries et al. The Little Owl: Conservation, Ecology, and Behavior of Athene noctua. 2011. Cambridge University Press. Paperback: 574 pages. Price: $39.99 U.S. [Guardian Bookshop; Amazon UK; Amazon US]. SUMMARY: Our understanding of the basic biology of owls is poor compared to that of other bird species. The little owl, Athene noctua, has become one of the best models for biological and conservation research, due to its commonness and the fact that it occupies nest-boxes very easily. In this unique book the authors synthesise the substantial literature, and detail current information regarding the little owl. They discuss its wide-ranging ecology, genetics and subspecies and population status by country. In addition, they outline a strategy and monitoring program for its conservation. The book features an outstanding bibliography of literature on the little owl, listing publications dated from 1769 to 2007, in many languages, including Russian, English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Dutch. Whilst being an invaluable resource for academic researchers, its straightforward style holds undoubted appeal for amateurs and enthusiasts.IAN'S RECOMMENDATION: A must have for those with an interest in the little owl or in owls in general.

Powell, Robert, Joseph T. Collins, and Errol D. Hooper, Jr. Key to the Herpetofauna of the Continental United States and Canada (second edition). 2012. University Press of Kansas. Paperback: 152 pages. Price: $19.95 U.S. [Amazon UK; Amazon US]. SUMMARY: This profusely illustrated comprehensive key for identifying herpetofaunal specimens from the continental United States and Canada incorporates a wealth of scientific findings. Since the first edition was published in 1998, the number of currently recognized species of native salamanders, frogs, turtles, lizards, amphisbaenians (wormlike lizards), snakes, and crocodilians in this area has increased from 545 to 634, and the number of established non-native species has increased from 39 to 58. The increase in native taxa reflects the dynamic nature of modern systematics and the use of new (especially molecular) techniques to elucidate relationships and redefine species boundaries. The increase in non-native exotic species reflects the porosity of the North American borders when it comes to controlling animal imports. The key is easy to use and illustrated with outstanding line drawings that show details of color patterns and structures used for identification. To accommodate the additional taxa, the number of line drawings in this new edition has increased from 257 to 279. In addition, 25 maps illustrating the distributions of some problematic species groups have been added. The literature cited has been expanded considerably, including a large number of annotations detailing current taxonomic ambiguities or disagreements. Collectively these features, together with numerous references to the Peterson Field Guides and accounts in the Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles, dramatically enhance opportunities to teach and learn the classification and identification of the herpetofauna.IAN'S RECOMMENDATION: A must have for those with an interest in the herpetofauna of the region!

Burnett, D. Graham. The Sounding of the Whale: Science and Cetaceans in the Twentieth Century. 2012. The University of Chicago Press. Hardbound: 793 pages. Price: $45.00 U.S. [Amazon UK; Amazon US]. SUMMARY: From the Bible's "Canst thou raise leviathan with a hook?" to Captain Ahab's "From Hell's heart I stab at thee!," from the trials of Job to the legends of Sinbad, whales have breached in the human imagination as looming figures of terror, power, confusion, and mystery. In the twentieth century, however, our understanding of and relationship to these superlatives of creation underwent some astonishing changes, and with The Sounding of the Whale, D. Graham Burnett tells the fascinating story of the transformation of cetaceans from grotesque monsters, useful only as wallowing kegs of fat and fertilizer, to playful friends of humanity, bellwethers of environmental devastation, and, finally, totems of the counterculture in the Age of Aquarius. When Burnett opens his story, ignorance reigns: even Nature was misclassifying whales at the turn of the century, and the only biological study of the species was happening in gruesome Arctic slaughterhouses. But in the aftermath of World War I, an international effort to bring rational regulations to the whaling industry led to an explosion of global research -- and regulations that, while well-meaning, were quashed, or widely flouted, by whaling nations, the first shot in a battle that continues to this day. The book closes with a look at the remarkable shift in public attitudes toward whales that began in the 1960s, as environmental concerns and new discoveries about whale behavior combined to make whales an object of sentimental concern and public adulation. A sweeping history, grounded in nearly a decade of research, The Sounding of the Whale tells a remarkable story of how science, politics, and simple human wonder intertwined to transform the way we see these behemoths from below.IAN'S RECOMMENDATION: A must have for anyone with an interest in the history of whaling.

Rothenberg, David. Survival of the Beautiful: Art, Science, and Evolution. 2011. Bloomsbury Press. Hardbound: 311 pages. Price: $30.00 U.S. [Guardian Bookshop; Amazon UK; Amazon US]. SUMMARY: "The peacock's tail," said Charles Darwin, "makes me sick." That's because the theory of evolution as adaptation can't explain why nature is so beautiful. It took the concept of sexual selection for Darwin to explain that, a process that has more to do with aesthetics than the practical. Survival of the Beautiful is a revolutionary new examination of the interplay of beauty, art, and culture in evolution. Taking inspiration from Darwin's observation that animals have a natural aesthetic sense, philosopher and musician David Rothenberg probes why animals, humans included, have innate appreciation for beauty-and why nature is, indeed, beautiful. Sexual selection may explain why animals desire, but it says very little about what they desire. Why will a bowerbird literally murder another bird to decorate its bower with the victim's blue feathers? Why do butterfly wings boast such brilliantly varied patterns? The beauty of nature is not arbitrary, even if random mutation has played a role in evolution. What can we learn from the amazing range of animal aesthetic behavior -- about animals, and about ourselves? Readers who enjoyed the bestsellers The Art Instinct and The Mind's Eye will find Survival of the Beautiful an equally stimulating and profound exploration of art, science, and the creative impulse.IAN'S RECOMMENDATION: An interesting take on how art and the natural world meet.

Figes, Orlando. The Crimean War: A History. 2012. Picador. Paperback: 575 pages. Price: $22.00 U.S. [Amazon UK; Amazon US]. SUMMARY: The Charge of the Light Brigade, Florence Nightingale -- these are the enduring icons of the Crimean War. Less well-known is that this savage war (1853-1856) killed almost a million soldiers and countless civilians; that it enmeshed four great empires -- the British, French, Turkish, and Russian -- in a battle over religion as well as territory; that it fixed the fault lines between Russia and the West; that it set in motion the conflicts that would dominate the century to come. In this masterly history, Orlando Figes reconstructs the first full conflagration of modernity, a global industrialized struggle fought with unusual ferocity and incompetence. Drawing on untapped Russian and Ottoman as well as European sources, Figes vividly depicts the world at war, from the palaces of St. Petersburg to the holy sites of Jerusalem; from the young Tolstoy reporting in Sevastopol to Tsar Nicolas, haunted by dreams of religious salvation; from the ordinary soldiers and nurses on the battlefields to the women and children in towns under siege. Original, magisterial, alive with voices of the time, The Crimean War is a historical tour de force whose depiction of ethnic cleansing and the West's relations with the Muslim world resonates with contemporary overtones. At once a rigorous, original study and a sweeping, panoramic narrative, The Crimean War is the definitive account of the war that mapped the terrain for today's world.IAN'S RECOMMENDATION: A must have for those with an interest in European/Russian and/or military history.

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Ian "Birdbooker" Paulsen is an avid and well-known book collector, especially to the publishing world. Mr Paulsen collects newly-published books about science, nature, history, animals and birds, and he also collects children's books on these topics. Mr Paulsen writes brief synopses about these books on his website, The Birdbooker Report. I congratulate Ian Paulsen on setting up his Birdbooker Report blog four years ago, on 17 February 2008. Happy blogiversary, Ian!